In this mailing:
- Raymond Ibrahim: The Ignored Genocide of Christians in Nigeria
- Amir Taheri: Iran: Self-Harming with Anti-Americanism
by Raymond Ibrahim • August 16, 2020 at 5:00 am
Earlier this year... [Boko Haram] released a video of a masked Muslim child holding a pistol behind a bound and kneeling Christian hostage, a 22-year-old biology student who was earlier abducted while traveling to his university. After chanting in Arabic and launching into an anti-Christian diatribe, the Muslim child shot the Christian several times in the back of the head.
Aside from some of the most grisly incidents... the so-called mainstream media does not report on the bulk of the persecution. Could journalists be worried that a politically incorrect pattern might emerge, in which attacks might appear ideologically driven, as opposed to just "crimes"?
The reason formerly simple Fulani herdsmen have, since 2015, managed to kill nearly twice as many Christians as the "professional" terrorists of Boko Haram.... is, to quote Nigerian bishop Matthew Ishaya Audu, "because President Buhari is also of the Fulani ethnic group."
"Since the government and its apologists are claiming the killings have no religious undertones, why are the terrorists and herdsmen targeting the predominantly Christian communities and Christian leaders?" — The Christian Association of Nigeria, International Centre for Investigative Reporting, January 21, 2020.
"What Obama, John Kerry and Hilary Clinton did to Nigeria by funding and supporting [current president Muhammadu] Buhari in the 2015 presidential election and helping Boko Haram in 2014/2015 was sheer wickedness and the blood of all those killed by the Buhari administration, his Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram over the last 5 years are on their hands." — Femi Fani-Kayode, Nigeria's former Minister of Culture and Tourism, Facebook, February 12, 2020.
The mass slaughter of Christians in Nigeria, which some international observers have classified as genocide, is reaching unprecedented levels. Pictured: The town of Auno, Nigeria on February 10, 2020, following an attack the previous day in which jihadists murdered at least 30 people and abducted women and children. (Photo by Audu Marte/AFP via Getty Images)
The mass slaughter of Christians in Nigeria, which some international observers have classified as genocide, is reaching unprecedented levels.
According to an August 4 report, at least 171 Christians were slaughtered by Muslim Fulani herdsmen in the space roughly three weeks:
"And these are only those we know of. In reality, the toll is likely to be far higher. Many thousands are also being displaced by the violence from homes and such livelihoods as they had left after covid lockdown brought economic havoc.... Our news desk has been swamped by such stories for many months, yet this relentless and bloody toll of Christian lives is disturbingly absent from wider mainstream media."
by Amir Taheri • August 16, 2020 at 4:00 am
What Ails the Islamic Republic in Iran?... one may suggest another, in my opinion more pertinent, ailment: Anti-Americanism or, to coin a word, Americanitis.
It consists of a mixture of professed hatred of the United States, as reflected in the regime's uber-slogan "Death to America", on the one hand, and sadomasochistic fascination with all things American on the other.
Despite all that, poll after poll shows that the "Great Satan" remains more popular in Iran than in some Western democracies.
Hope of immigrating to the US has created a bustling visa-hunting industry with over 80 "specialist offices". The US consulate in Istanbul claims it is processing more than 100,000 Iranian files each year.
Iran's Anti-Americanism, or Americanitis, consists of a mixture of professed hatred of the United States, as reflected in the regime's uber-slogan "Death to America", on the one hand, and sadomasochistic fascination with all things American on the other. Poll after poll shows that the "Great Satan" remains more popular in Iran than in some Western democracies. American fast food, under Islamic names, is also competing with Persian cuisine. (Photo by Patrick Baz/AFP via Getty Images)
What Ails the Islamic Republic in Iran?
This is the topic of a symposium that, coronavirus permitting, is slated to bring a number of European Iran-watchers together next month.
Some answers could be anticipated, among them a democratic deficit, not to say a totalitarian culture of government. There is also rampant corruption, which some experts believe has become a way of life in Iran. Another ailment is economic dislocation caused by poor management and the greed of a narrowly based nomenclature. A surrealistic cult of personality and a never-ending factional feud may also be cited. No prize for guessing, but sanctions imposed by the United Nations, the United States and the European Union, too, are sure to be mentioned.
However, at the risk of veering away from academic method, one may suggest another, in my opinion more pertinent, ailment: Anti-Americanism or, to coin a word, Americanitis.
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